I’ll add a few personal thoughts in support of this effort. First, I would like to emphasize the value of people’s lives, no matter what they believe and where they live. When the historical changeover occurred that made civilian casualties of war an everyday reality, and with the concept of collateral damage well entrenched in the soul of the times, I feel it is important to say that there is no acceptable death of innocents, of civilians, of bystanders. Furthermore, what has happened to the art of diplomacy? Brushed aside as outmoded by the Bush administration, there are now few open lines over which ostensible enemies can communicate. Surely this only helps situations escalate into war, which is a tragedy.

The damage done to women, children and men around the world is not, of course, limited to wartime. After the recent Cyclone, the response of the Myanmar Junta to offers of outside aid was and is simply inexcusable. How this Junta could participate in the decimation of its own country is unfathomable. As Daniel Schorr put it so eloquently on NPR yesterday, it is time for the international community to act, together and immediately, to prevent this tragedy from becoming far worse. This can be done through the United Nations “Responsibility to Protect” resolution of 2005. As Mr. Schorr made clear, this international action must be carried out in spite of the bad name given to “intervention” by President Bush.

It is not enough, however, to respect the right of people to live. As an international community, we must also respect and provide for the basic human rights that go beyond life itself. I join Amnesty International in support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

Sponsored by Amnesty International and BlogCatalog. Please post about human rights on May 15!

Whether you belong to BlogCatalog (a free social network for bloggers) or not, see here for banners. My earlier statement, “It appears that you need to be a member of BlogCatalog to see the banners and badges,” has been corrected kindly by Tony in the comments. Now, with the corrected link, you should be able to access the badge of your choice and put it on your blog.

For web-savvy environmentalists, or any interested environmentalists, please consider joining sustainability, a home for all environmentally-related content on Squidoo.com. See also the new site for discussion of solar power on Squidoo.com: solar power. If you don’t know about Squidoo, I didn’t either until a little while ago. It is easy to set up a “lens” that focuses on your favorite topic, blog, website, etc.

I have decided that the inclusion of headlines from other news sources, along with the citations to the original sources on the web, constitutes “fair use” in the context of this educational blog. This blog is designed to inform voters and citizens about important environmental and chemical matters, to help people develop informed opinions on these complex subjects.

So, the World Headlines are back.

This topic is too important, the misinformation too substantial, and the good information too widely scattered, for me to stop providing selected world headlines in good conscience.

Also, now that I have figured out del icio us, there is a second feed of 10 recent headlines from sites I have tagged.

Please note: with syndication via BlogBurst and by other means, articles posted here have been republished on the websites of The Washington Post, Reuters, The Austin American Statesman, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, IBS, EU-Digest and FoxNews.